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BREAKING: Nigerians Now Paying Less for Data — Dr, Pantami

Pantami

The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali-Pantami, on Thursday said the average cost of 1GB of data has reduced from the January 2020 cost of N1,000 to N487.18 in November, 2020.

The minister, in a statement by his Technical Assistant on Information Technology, Dr Femi Adeluyi, said the reduction followed measures put in place to reduce the average cost of data in the country.

According to him, it was based on a report by the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, submitted to the minister following the implementation of the directives of Mr Pantami.

Recall that Mr Pantami had earlier inaugurated a committee that developed the Nigerian National Broadband Plan (2020-2025) on December 16, 2019.

He said: “The Plan was unveiled and launched by His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, on the 19th of March, 2020.
“One of the goals of the Plan is to reduce the average cost of 1GB of data to a maximum of N390 by 2025.

“With the January 2020 baseline of N1,000 per GB, the maximum projected steady decrease for the end of each year was as follows: 2020 (N925), 2021 (N850), 2022 (N775), 2023 (N700), 2024 (N545) and 2025 (N390).”

“The measures have caused the current cost of data to reduce significantly beyond the December 2020 projection of N925.”

According to the report by NCC, the average cost of data as at November 2020 was N487.18, which amounts to 47.33% lower than the projected value.

The Report also indicated that the cost of data in November 2020 was less than 50% of the cost of data in January 2020.

Mr Pantami reiterated his his commitment to ensure Nigerians enjoy data with little amount.

He said his ministry through the NCC, would continue to ensure that consumers enjoy a price regime that supports fairness and is friendly to consumers.

“Policies are in place to ensure that operators adopt competitive pricing that eschews unjustifiable margins.

“The general public may also wish to note that complaints about rapid data depletion are also being investigated,” the minister said.

Mr Pantami also directed the NCC to respond to all issues raised by Nigerians.

He assured that all hands would remain on deck to achieve the goals of the Broadband Plan with the supervision of his ministry in implementing the plan in line with the National Digital Economy Policy for a Digital Nigeria.

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